My stay in Chennai came to an end when my course was finished in the Junior College in August 1949. I planned to join my family in New Delhi and complete my college degree as I had only an intermediate credential from the Presidency College. New Delhi, being the capital city of India, was a very sophisticated metropolis compared to Chennai.

My father was keen on putting me in the Engineering program, which gave better employment opportunities, even though he knew well that my interest was in Chemistry. Engineering studies demanded good command of Math, in which subject I was weak. So I applied for the Chemistry Honors Course at Hansraj College, under Delhi University. Nevertheless, he got an admission for me at the Birla Engineering College in Pilani, a town at the edge of the Sandy Desert of Rajasthan. The Principal of this college was Mr. Lakshminarashimman, an old friend of my father. The admission was to be confirmed after I went to the college to formally apply and pay the tuition fees.

Pilani was reachable from Delhi only by trains that arrived or departed there after midnight. I packed a small suit case and a travel bag. As there were no zippers in the garments we wore in those days, so in order to carry the money I needed without being pickpocketed in the train, my father stuffed one of my shirt pockets full of Rupees and stitched the pocket shut.

I took the night rain to Pilani and arrived there around 4:00a.m. on a chilly morning. Teaming up with some other students, I took a horse-drawn cart from the railway station to the dormitory where I was supposed to stay for few days before getting formally admitted. Getting up late in the morning after the journey, I looked around at the most discouraging environment that one could imagine. Lunch at the college cafeteria was awful.

I met with the principal after the lunch and he welcomed me as we were both Tamilians. He showed me the main admission office where I was to submit my application and pay the tuition fees to get formally admitted. While taking a few rounds in the Campus I listened to an inner voice telling me that this is not a place for me. Without saying goodbye to the Principal I boldly took the next available train back to Delhi without paying a dime for my admission. My parents were surprised to see me walk into the house early that morning. I frankly told them of my decision not to pursue my studies in Engineering but to focus on Chemistry. My father reluctantly agreed probably after recalling in his mind the similar situation I had before I was admitted in the Patwardan High School in Nagpur.

The following day I went to Delhi University to inquire about my application for admission to the Chemistry honors course. I was told that a roster will be posted outside the Registrar’s office in a week’s time. My father and I went on the following week and found the roster for Chemistry Honors listing all the names of the applicants with the marks they had gotten in the previous Chemistry class. The roster also had a red line below the fiftieth name, indicating that admission was rejected for those whose names were below the red line. There were only fifty seats to be filled in this course. To our amazement we did not find my name anywhere on the roster, either above or below the red line, although my Chemistry marks at the Presidency College were over 80%. My father immediately rushed to the office of Mr. Chabra, the Registrar, and brought this matter to his attention. Mr. Chabra himself came out to double check the roster. Then and there he admitted that it was the fault of his office and registered my name for admission. This was almost a miracle; no institution in India admits their fault.

So I was in the B.Sc. honors course in my favorite subject, with very knowledgeable and personable and professors. I took Organic Chemistry as my special branch during the third year of study. I also had to take a year’s course in Physics and an elective — the History of Science and Scientific Methods — which was an eye opener for me. I had a voracious appetite for memorizing formulae and structures of chemical compounds. I also did well in my lab work and finished the three-year course in 1952.

Our house was in the suburb of Karol Baugh, and the University campus was located on one end of the city about ten miles from our place. I had my first bicycle when I came to Delhi and cycled every day through the busy and crazy old Delhi traffic to get to my college. For the first time we had a telephone in our house. Besides volleyball, I played cricket seriously during this period and was selected in the college cricket team as a wicket-keeper and opening bat.

During these three years my father and I had the good fortune of attending a series of weekly lectures on the Bhagadvad Gita, considered a holy book by the Hindus. the lectures were given by a well-known scholarly presenter, Swami Ranganada Nanda, at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute.

As I was completing my honors degree in Delhi, my father was coincidentally transferred to Calcutta to assume a more senior post in his department. We moved to Calcutta during that summer of 1949.

After completing my undergraduate degree in Chemistry, I realized that it was not sufficient to get a decent job. There were many of unemployed and under-employed graduates in the country. I applied for admission to the Master’s degree program in both Delhi and Calcutta Universities. The program in Calcutta was a more attractive three year course yielding a degree in MSC. (Tech) with Pharmaceutical Chemistry as a special subject. I got my admission at the Delhi University easily, having completed my undergraduate education in the same University. I did not hear from the Calcutta University yet, as the colleges in that state open late in September. So I opted to take the M.Sc. courses at the Delhi University.

This meant that I would again have to live away from my parents in the hostels on the campus. I was fortunate in getting a single-room dormitory space in Gauyer Hall, which was reputed for student discipline. I enjoyed my stay in this well-maintained hostel and the food was above average. For the first time I ate food that was entirely North Indian. The courses in the Master’s program were challenging. I enjoyed my freedom and developed good relationships with the fellow inmates of that hostel within weeks.

Life in Calcutta

All this came to an end in late September of 1949 after six weeks at Delhi University. My father wrote that I had been admitted to the M.Sc. (Tech) courses at the Calcutta University and that I should move to Calcutta and be with the family once again. It was easy to make the decision to move to Calcutta since I missed my family very much. Also, I was getting into a well-reputed program of greater value at a respected University. At age 21 I had already gone through six different schools, attended two universities, lived in three linguistic environments, and negotiated three major moves. I took the move to Calcutta as a duck to the water.

The Bengali culture in Calcutta was a real great contrast to Delhi and Chennai. Calcutta was a city of prominence, giving birth to patriots, scientists, artists. Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Laureate, poet, and visionary was from Bengal.

Calcutta was one of the most densely populated and filthiest cities I have ever lived in. The smoking population was the highest I have seen so far. We lived in a cleaner suburb called Ballygung and there was a very scenic lake near our house. This is where I learned to swim so I would qualify to join the boat club. I enjoyed rowing in the scull, or canoe. The University campus was also situated in clean and decent surroundings. Public transport was plenty with well-laid street cars (called trams) plus taxis, public buses, and hand-drawn rickshaws.

The course was of three years duration and involved classes during the first two years in chemical engineering, industrial drawing, chemicals manufacture, and structures of natural compounds, plus introductory courses in genetics, biochemistry, and bacteriology. After completing this course work, one would take seven three-hour written exams plus a practical, then opt for a specialty area during the third year. A final written examination this specialty with a dissertation and a three-month internship in a chemical industry gives the degree. So my agenda was full and I earnestly put myself to work.

Though the medium of instruction was to be English, the professors delivered half of the lectures in Bengali, which was challenging to me. I complained, and the professors became more thoughtful and encouraged me to keep on. Fortunately, I kept close ears to the way they articulated their language which was derived from Sanskrit, and in a year’s time I could understand and speak the Bengali language reasonably well.

I did well in the first two years and chose pharmaceutics as my area of specialty. My professor was one Dr. Sudhir Niyogi, a graduate from an English University. He was an excellent instructor with a warm heart. I did my dissertation on “A New Method for the preparation of Diasone”, which was then the drug of choice for treating leprosy. Surprisingly Dr. Niyogi submitted a paper with him as coauthor on the dissertation work I did to the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. It was accepted for publication and this was my first-ever scientific publication. I was 24 years of age. I also completed my internship at the Sarabhai Chemicals in the city of Baroda situated 800 miles west of Calcutta and not too far from Mumbai.

In Aug of 1955 I received my M.Sc. (Tech) degree. I wrote my first resume and started applying for jobs. I also got my first suit for any job interviews. Sarabhai Chemicals had no spots. I had two unsuccessful interviews in Mumbai, one with Abbott Labs for a drug salesman position and the other for a chemist at Lever Brothers. It was during this time that we shifted to a more central location in Calcutta. The Government offered my father upgraded and completely furnished living quarters in Kyd Street, near Park Street, a neighborhood of choice. It was in a multi-storied apartment complex occupied by a wide range of families — Anglo-Indian, Moslem, and Christian, including some from abroad. This was initially a challenge to my dear mother who was used to Brahmin-only neighborhoods but she managed wonderfully. My sister Muthulakshmi got married that year and moved to Chennai to be in her new home.

To keep myself busy I accepted a part-time job with the help of Dr. Niyogi, to measure the acidity/alkalinity of the glass vials supplied by a local firm for filling injectable drugs. This analysis could be performed in Niyogi’s lab at the University. I got a stipend of Rs. 50 for every batch of vials tested, each batch containing one dozen vials. I gave the entire earnings to my father as it was the custom in our family.

Tenure at the Bose Institute

It was late in 1955 when I went to the Bose Institute, a science research institute located next to the University College campus. The institute was established in 1917 by Acharya Jagdish Chandra Bose, who was the founder of modern scientific research in India. The Bose Institute pioneered for the first time the concept of inter-disciplinary research in India. That institute was affiliated with Calcutta University and received sizable grants from different organizations including the National Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (called CSIR). It had three departments of research – Chemistry, Botany and Biochemistry – and an excellent library with all the current scientific journals in circulation. The institute had a dining hall and a kitchen and generally most of the research workers and the administrative staff came to eat lunch together. It was here I ventured to try eggs in my diet. Starting from egg fried rice I got used to all egg preparations.

During this visit I met a relatively young Research Professor/Scholar, Dr. Arum Kumar Barua, who was doing research on Indian Medicinal Plants. He had just gotten grant from CSIR to do further research on the work that got him his doctorate. He asked me if I was interested in doing doctoral work with the fellowship money he has gotten, to which I agreed after consulting with my parents. In a week’s time I got the fellowship.

Here I was again a student entering a doctoral program, but this was a game-changer in my professional life. I thoroughly enjoyed working with Dr. Barua and began extracting medicinal plants and analyzing them. In this work the challenge was to isolate chemical compounds that have never been isolated from plants and determine their chemical structures. The American Chemical Society in those days published a well-categorized quarterly journal “Chemical Abstracts” which gave the summaries of any paper published in referenced journals appearing worldwide. This involved a regular search of every issue of the chemical abstracts to see if any other research worker in any other part of the world has isolated and worked with similar plants and identified a new compound.

In the first year of work I examined four or five plants but produced no novel compounds. But that first year gave me the experience of working on such projects and also refined my laboratory techniques to work with milligram quantities of chemicals. I worked hard and late into the evenings, but my mother was always ready to feed me no matter what time I came home. I prayed a lot.

It was in early 1957 that I fortunately isolated not one but two new “triterpinoid” compounds from a plant called Albizzia lebbeck and started working on their chemical structures. Though their structures were not yet established we published in December 1957 the isolation of these compounds which we had confirmed as triterpinoids. These were short letters to the editor in a peer-refereed journal of science and culture whose offices were located next door to us. It was important to claim the chronological priority in the isolation of these new compounds and this also gave validity for my doctoral work.

The Calcutta University’s doctoral program in the hard sciences had a requirement of proficiency in a foreign language (other than English) sufficient to translate scientific papers published in that language. In the area of Organic Chemistry which I was researching a vast majority of the papers were in German, so I enrolled in the German classes offered by the German Consulate in Calcutta. These 90-minute classes were offered in the evenings twice a week by a visiting scholar, Klaus Halweg, from the Goethe Institute in Munchen. Fortunately the classes were in the YMCA only three blocks from our residence. This was a six-month course that was to give me enough knowledge of this language to satisfy the University’s requirement. I had a chat with Mr. Halweg before enrolling in the course so that he would understand the purpose of my taking the classes and our mutual expectations would be clear. He assured me that I would get more than that in this course. There were more than twenty enrolled in this class and many were proceeding to Germany to pursue their studies or career.

On the first day of the class he warned us that we should not get discouraged as he will be talking only in German for the first few weeks and not to open the prescribed text until he feels we are ready. This was because of his rich experience in teaching a second language — first one has to get used to the “music of the language”, the vocabulary and how it is articulated, before going into its grammar. This remarkable approach did bring the expected results. As he said, when we opened the book we could comprehend the basic structure of the language and feel comfortable in proceeding further. Though I did not score well in the final examination, it was almost a miracle that I was able to converse and understand written German. I could understand the papers published in German in my field of research. I wish the Sanskrit teachers in the Patwardan School in Nagpur had used this approach in their teaching the language, particularly to a Tamilian.

Throughout 1958, I worked hard in the determination of the structures of these compounds. I was damn lucky, and I was thrilled by my success in this effort. Above and beyond this thrill was the following realization. From the time I was introduced to the branch of Chemistry by Prof. Ramdas in the Presidency College in Chennai, through all the courses in this subject since then, and hundreds of chemical reactions and investigations I performed during this research project, I realized one phenomenon. The atoms, molecules or compounds we study, besides having their own unique and individual properties, have to conform to a systematic order and laws intrinsic in nature.

It took almost a month to prepare the final manuscript of my dissertation as it required a thorough editing, which was done graciously by Dr. Barua, my immediate supervisor. This was a manuscript written entirely by hand. Fortunately my hand writing then was clear and legible. In those days typing was done on manual typewriters with carbon paper sheets to make copies. The typing was most carefully done by my father’s secretary keeping in mind to leave enough space to introduce the structural formulas later. Even one mistake will void the entire page; white erasing liquids or correction tapes were not yet on the market. There were no copying machines and a total of four copies of the dissertation were typed and then the formulae were meticulously inserted in the correct spaces by an artist friend of mine. There were no plastic templates for the chemical structures. The whole process took a month and half. I submitted my dissertation on this work in September 1959.

It is customary that any dissertation in Science from the Calcutta University should be approved by an external examiner. This would be a research scientist abroad, preferably in Europe or the USA, working in the same field. My dissertation was sent to Sir E.R.H. Jones, Head of the Dyson Perrins Laboratory at the University of Oxford, who had done notable work on steroids, terpenes, and other natural products. His evaluation of my work was outstanding. An excerpt from his evaluation report is as follows: “The candidate has to be congratulated on the excellence of his experimental work and its interpretation…. I regard this as one of the best Indian theses which I have been asked to examine.” On receipt of this evaluation from Prof. Jones, a viva-examination of the dissertation with the other two Indian members of the dissertation committee was held, and I got my doctoral degree in January of 1960. Several scientific publications came out of this work both in foreign and Indian Journals.

On the home front during this period my two sisters Muthu and Subbu finished their junior college courses and got married according to our custom. The grooms were chosen based on the compatibility of horoscopes. In these marriages, a lot of money as dowry was given by my father. My brother Cheenu finished his engineering degree at the University of Jadavpur in Calcutta as I was finishing my work at the Bose Institute.

Soon after getting my degree I applied to several professors in the United States for post-doctoral fellowship. Lo and behold, in April of 1960 I got a letter offering me a fellowship from the biochemistry department at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. I was thrilled and excited. I lost no time in preparing for this overseas trip. Fortunately I had six months to get ready, from April to August. I generated a long “to-do” list, and on the top of this list was getting an Indian Passport. Second on the list was securing the needed finances to travel to Madison.

I applied for my passport and it came within six weeks, by the end of May. As soon as I had it in hand I applied for a American visa to travel and work in the USA, as I knew that it may take months to get it. I received a letter from the US Consulate that I can come for an interview and pick up the visa after a medical examination by a physician recommended by them. This I did, and got my US visa on July 1st, 1960. Since there was enough time I determined to go to the US by ship. I wanted to enter the country after leisurely travel and not be catapulted by air. With the help of an intelligent and efficient travel agent, whose offices were located a block from our residence, I had researched several travel itineraries that would get me to Madison on time, by ship. But I needed about Rs. 2500 which at that time was close to six weeks salary for my father.

I had known about the Fulbright Travel Scholarship program, which gave grants to Indian students to pursue their education at US Universities. The Calcutta branch office of this institution was fortuitously in the same building complex where we lived. Early in May I applied for the funds with my full resume now reflecting the recently acquired Doctorate and the invitation letter from Wisconsin. I went for an interview, and in the middle of June I got a response from them saying that I am in the first cut of applicants for the fellowship from the Calcutta region and that I will have to wait for the final interview of the candidates with others coming from different all over India. Then the finally selected candidates will go to Mumbai in August for a workshop on “ Living in America” before the departure to the States. Nothing could be more welcome news for me with respect to timing.

I waited and waited for the second letter calling me for the final interview. I was very worried by the long silence as time was slipping off. I went to the Fulbright Scholarship office and inquired about the second interview. They told me that the fellowship was only for those who have worked for two years after getting their final degree. This being the case, my name has been removed from the list that was to appear in the second interview.

I was totally shocked to learn about this. I retorted saying that they should not have interviewed me in the first place knowing the requirement and that they have wasted my time. I even dashed off a letter to Senator Fulbright’s office in Washington, D.C, with a complaint stating the facts. I got a kind response saying they cannot do anything but apologize for the error made by the selection committee. I was in a quandary not knowing what to do since it was already end of June. I had no money to travel and will have to be in Madison by early September. I prayed a lot.

On mere intuition I went to the Director of the Bose Institute, where I was still employed as a researcher after my doctoral study. I showed him the letter from Senator Fulbright’s office with all the attendant facts. He asked me “What do you want me to do?” in a joking voice. Straight in his face I told him that he should give the needed funds of RS. 2000, as that is the only option I have. He was dumbfounded by this request. After recovering in few seconds, he gave an OK, but on one condition: that on my return I will serve at the Bose Institute for a period of three years to return the money. I agreed to this very reasonable condition. He then and there called his finance officer, briefed him on our conversation, and authorized him to give the needed funds. The very next day I got the sum of Rs. 2000 in cash, as there was no personal check writing system.

On 18th of July, I finalized my travel itinerary with my travel agent, who had all the travel documents in order. In nine days I was to leave Mumbai for Liverpool England via a cargo boat and after a week’s stay in London take another boat on 27th August, from Southampton, England, to Montreal, Canada. I was then to take a Greyhound bus overnight to Madison Wisconsin so as to arrive on September 4th. I found this to be an excellent plan which gave me the time I wanted in London. I got from American Express the necessary US $315 (Indian Rupees 1515) which was the limit one could exchange. I finalized packing my suitcase and on July 24th took the train to Mumbai. My dear brother Cheenu also travelled with me to see me off.